Mosti Mondiale Much Different Smell to my Cab

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Johnd

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First time poster to the Forum, but have been reading and absorbing all of the great advice, working on my 10th kit as we speak (all of them MM and WE).
Started a MM All Juice Masters Edition Old Vine Cabernet with Grape Pack, SG=1090.
Grape Pack was added loose to the must. Punched the cap down and stirred daily with sanitized spoon, all was as expected. Proceeded through primary in a covered primary fermentor, but let the SG get to 1.00 before racking to secondary (two too many wine volcanoes after adding nutrients and oak chips above 1.10). I removed the skins, etc. with a sanitized strainer before the racking. After secondary racking to carboy, added the oak and nutrients (DAP) with no volcano, the wine continued to ferment down to about .992 where it remained inactively for three of days.
Last night I racked to a sanitized carboy for degassing, kms, and fining agents and encountered a smell I've not had in a wine before, not nasty or rotten, just different, kinda musty or oaky. I summoned my courage, it didn't taste too bad. I'm wondering if my late addition of DAP has affected the wine, any experiences with that?
I'm pretty well determined to stay the course and finish the wine as planned, although I am considering an early racking off of the lees, as they are piling up quickly since last night's fining operation. MM kits direct you to transfer all of the sediment from primary to secondary, which was substantial due to the loose grape pack.
Thoughts??
 
Welcome, John.

I think you're fine, but your early racking off the lees sounds like a good idea.
 
Thanks Jim, I'll give the early racking a try. Do you think it'll continue to clear properly after the early racking without any additional fining agents?

YES! The emphasis on that is because a lot of folks get hung up on following the manufacturers' instructions precisely, but I have found there are a great many nuances to the art of winemaking, which you will only discover and have the confidence to try if you are willing to 'experiment' in small ways. I almost never use the fining agents on red wines, unless I am in a hurry to bottle, instead letting time and gravity clarify the wine. With a red wine, perfect crystal clarity wine does not have the visual appeal it does with white wines, so who cares?

The wine will benefit far more from aging with as little disruption as possible over a year or more than carefully racking the wine every 90 days. I have found that a little benign neglect greatly benefits the higher-end kits and grape/juice wines (but it has little impact on your lower-end kits).
 
Bart:
Thanks for sharing your wisdom and experience. I've been a wine enjoyer for a long time and was completely floored to learn that I could make it myself with surprisingly good results.
Like many new wine makers whose post I have read, my patience virtue has not progressed as far as my understanding about how y'all do it best, but I'm trying like heck to leave it in carboys.
My current plan is to make a lot more than I can drink so that I can intentionally "lose" 10 or 15 bottles from all of my good kits in the back of the cellar, or not bottle entire carboys for extended periods of time.
This particular wine just doesn't smell like any of the higher end cabs that I've done and I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that I haven't messed it up somehow.
Thanks again for your input, I will let time tell the tale.
 
A quick update on the wine I've been referring to as "the stinky cab".

The wine began to settle out quickly, depositing a substantial amount of lees and was racked July 3rd, 5 days after the rack/degas/fining operation. I suspect this was due to the grape pack being put in loose. Had to top up with two bottles of another cab, 1/8 tsp KMS, and added a medium plus French oak spiral. It was still a little funny smelling, but better tasting.

Racked again today with a little KMS, wine was absolutely crystal clear, nice deep red coloring, good fruit, oak really coming on well, a little astringent. It was really good and I apologized for referring to it as the stinky cab. I can't believe I considered dumping it.

It's safe and sound, tucked away for at least another 3 months BA, oak tasting along the way.
 

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